mike berardi now and then

  Michael Eugene Berardi

August 8, 1930 –

Michael Eugene Berardi Sr. was born in Niles Ohio on August 8, 1930. After growing to age 6, he attended First Street elementary School. His house was second house from the school. He was late every day. They were studying a book called “Michael missed the train”.  Guess what his nickname became? At age 9 P.S. 26 and on to Middle School in Brooklyn New York in the Kings Borough.  He attended vocational High School.  The family moved to Queens where he graduated. He turned 17 years in Jr High School when he joined the Marine Reserve Program.  While Mike live there, he also worked in the family luncheonette doing a variety of jobs you can imagine a 14-year-old would have.  He says he managed the place! On September 4, 1947 he joined the Marine Corps Reserves, because he was in the reserves in High School, he didn’t have to go to boot camp. (How lucky can you get) He pulled a few stints (2 weeks each) in South and North Carolina at Marine bases during summer breaks from school.  The Korean War began on June 25, 1950. Mike was immediately to serve as a regular Marine. Two weeks after his 20th birthday, Mike boarded trains in N.Y. with his reserve outfit to go to California to help pack and load ships to go to Korea.  He then boarded the ships and sailed the Pacific.  A short stop, 12 hours, in Japan and off again to Korea. September 21, 1950, he landed at Inchon Korea on his way to the Chongjin Reservoir. The battle is part of Marine History where many Marines lost their lives. The 1st Marine Division fought their way thru Seoul South Korea. Then came back to Inchon, and boarded ships to go to North Korea to fight the North Korean Army.  They sailed around the tip of South Korea to the city of Wonsan. When they got there the ships didn’t go into the harbor.  They sailed North and South outside the Harbor for 10 days.  Scuttlebutt had it that the harbor was so heavily mined that they lost 3 mine sweepers trying to clear mines. When they finally landed, we learned that Bob Hope got there before they did.  They boarded vehicles and began the trip up the road to the reservoir, about 75 miles.  Halfway up the Seventh Marines (1st and 2nd BATT.) were caught in a trap. It was a figure eight with a road running thru both circles.  There were fire fights all night in the hills completely around the force.  Mike was in charge of the Message Center in the HQ Area.  He had sent all 8 of his code runners to the Companies. He was finished preparing the code sheets for the day when word came down to HQ that Able Company, on the point of First Battalion, was being overrun and running out of ammo. Mike and a Radioman had nothing to do.  They went down to supply and withdrew as much ammo as they could carry.  They found their way up the hill where Able Company was fighting.  When they reached the top of the hill, he asked a Marine where he wanted the ammo.  He said, “throw it into an empty foxhole”.  As they were doing so, a mortar round (bomb) hit on the edge of the foxhole right in front of them, about 10 feet away.  The concussion of the bomb picked him up and dropped him down the steep side of the hill.  As he was sliding down the hill, he regained his composure and found a small tree stump that stopped a trip to the bottom.  He found that his leg was bleeding and pulled out his medical kit that all marines carried.  He used the tourniquet to stop the bleeding.  A Corpsman worked his way down to him. He saw the wound was not severe, so he left to tend to other wounded.  The Marines on the hill above worked their way down to him and brought him back up the hill.  That night under cover of darkness, the wounded were put on jeeps and ran down the road to get them to the hospital at Wonsan.  He spent 3 weeks in the hospital and 1 week in recoperation.  They were then told “any man who could walk and carry a gun would be flown into the “Trap” to help get the decimated division out of North Korea.  Mike was wounded on November 3, 1950 by shrapnel in his hip, which he always carried with him and never had it removed.  After 3 months he was assigned to Guard Duty at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and then to a 9-month tour at Marine base Parris Island South Carolina where he met and married Blanche Pearl French December 28, 1951. Mike was quickly returned to Japan on an unaccompanied tour. Upon return to the good old USA he was assigned to Marine Air Base Cherry Point, NC. While there he served a short stint at Alamogordo Test Facility where he participated in troop nuclear testing, being exposed to the effects of a nuclear blast. Another trip to Japan and then in 1958 Mike departed the Marine Corps.  He got tired of being away from his family on unaccompanied tours so a month later he joined the Air Force and served at many significant locations including Tripoli Libya, Ramstein Air Base Germany and Vietnam to name a few. He ultimately landed at Eglin AFB where he met and married Alice Stokes on April 7, 1972.  Mike finally retired on March 1, 1974 as a Master Sargent with 27 years of honorable service and continued to reside in Destin, Florida.  After 3 years as a bartender and 3 years as a carpenter mike joined the Destin Post Office 1980 at a time when they only had 3 mail carriers! He retired from the Post Office in 1997 with 18 years of service.  Mike was a devout Catholic attending mass daily, alter service, choir and Our Lady of Fatima Rosary Captain to name a few of his contributions to Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Destin where he was a long-time member. Mike will be remembered as a wonderful Husband, Father, Grandfather Great Grandfather, the proudest of Americans, devoted Catholic, dog talker and collector of more junk mail than anyone on his route.  We think this is in some way getting back at the Post Office, but I know his carrier will be happy not carrying a separate box just for his mail. He says his greatest achievement was survival, He is survived by his brother Adam, sisters Louise, Carolann, sons Rick B, Fred B (deceased 63 yrs. old) Mike Jr., daughter Christine, son Rick Stokes and all the many Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren and Great Great Grand Children Brayden Bates, Maverick Hjerstedt, and Reese Hjerstedt.